It’s 60+ degrees today. I went on a lovely 4 mile hike by the ocean with a fr iend this morning without a coat – although the baby on my back counts as an extra layer. It was SO NICE to be outside and feeling like spring is on the way. Even if we get 5 feet of snow this month at least we’re not suffering through another endlessly cold, dark, snowy winter.

Sunday:

Three little troublemakers

The sun made it less cold

Photo session heaven

Monday:

READY TO GO

Now I’m nursing a baby AND a stuffed dog all the time

“My favorite part of my neighborhood is DD” That’s Dunkin Donuts. Mama’s so proud.

Tuesday:

Poppy & Rye *heart eyes forever*

Guilty face

This is the freestyle portion of ballet

Wednesday:

Skeptical of swim, as always

Box = more entertaining than thousands of real toys

Family Insanity Workout Time

Thursday:

LASHES

Bird stalking

Fancy hairs

Friday:

So cooperative and good at sharing, toddlers are

The number of things he insists on sleeping with keeps growing

Blowing stuff up while Caroline learns piano

Saturday:

Basketball poses

Babywearing in the Navy-themed Tula at the Navy-themed museum

THE GIRL’S TEAM WON BOTH GAMES IT’S A HAND AND FOOT MIRACLE

I’m afraid I’ve lost the ability to speak English. No one in my family seems to understand me when I talk, so that seems like the most likely explanation. Either that or they’ve all suddenly gone deaf, which might ALSO explain why they are SO LOUD ALL THE TIME.

That’s probably what happened.

Last week I helped throw a surprise twins baby shower. The party was a surprise I mean, not the twins. Well, the twins WERE a surprise, but they aren’t now. Now we all are very aware that my friend Steph is having identical twin girls sometime in the very near future. We are very, very excited for her.

One of my co-hosts found out from Steph she was really attached to the colors yellow and purple for the girls, so that was the theme we ran with. I hope she REALLY loves those colors because when you tell someone the theme is purple and yellow you end up with nothing but purple and yellow gifts. I’ve decided that to fit the theme she has to name them Violet and Marigold, but strangely Steph thinks she should “talk to her husband” and “let him help decide”. It makes no sense to me, but whatever. I’m fairly confident Vi and Mari will look beautiful in their purple and yellow outfits.

I filled in a few inexpensive bouquets from a local flower shop (McKenna’s, I highly recommend them!) with yellow pinwheels from Oriental Trading.

Diaper cake made with love by my co-host’s 2nd grade daughter.

Rainbow circle bum pants! Hanging up the baby clothes as part of the decor was a great idea I stole from Pinterest (like most of my great ideas).

Lemonade and champagne, because what else could you possibly want at a baby shower??

Yarn mobile I made (just like the ribbon mobile I made for Caroline’s nursery)

Lemon buttermilk petit fours (adapted from this recipe)

Popcorn balls (don’t they look like hydrangeas?) These were a really big hit with the big-sister-to-be.

Juice for toddlers, because there were a LOT of toddlers.

Cream cheese and bagels from Poppy & Rye here in town. That herb cream cheese might be my favorite food on the whole planet.

Most of the food was guest provided which meant there wasn’t much for me to do at all (besides eat way too much sugar). New babies are always such a joy and since the youngest baby in our friend group just started walking – despite our best efforts – we could use some teeny tinies around here.

I don’t know, guys. My iPhone photos are getting worse and worse and I’m not sure this is even a thing worth posting anymore. I only do it because it seems like such a shame to quit now – I have every day of our lives since I was pregnant with CAROLINE documents in iPhone photos. But they’re not good photos. And I should really push myself to post actual content on the blog if I’m going to bother to blog at all, instead of just doing this once a week. I’m conflicted.

Sunday:

Poser

FOOTBAAAAAAALL

I am unable to stop myself from decorating for a party almost a week early

Monday:

Aspirational spring dress purchasing

Snow angels! FINALLY!

TWINNING

Tuesday:

I bought my mom fish like these at a craft fair this summer. These are at Target.

RAINBOWS AT TARGET

Important party shopping: sugar, flowers, lemons

Wednesday:

Tiny reader

Nappy time

Caroline is being supportive of Daddy’s workout

Thursday:

It is still Christmas at the florist

They both thought this was hilarious

Making caramel for the popcorn balls

Friday:

Linc and friends enjoyed the party food

We ate kind of a lot of baked goods

I TOTALLY forgot piano, but our teacher let us come late

Sunday:

Movies and house-trashing because…

…this was outside

She has given up on life because she can’t go out and build a snowman in a blizzard

We did not get the same giant storm that my parents did down in DC, but we got a few inches. The weather the rest of this week is supposed to be surprisingly warm, which means all that snow will melt and things will be boring and brown again. But it ALSO means we won’t have to sell any kidneys to afford oil to heat the house, so it’s a toss-up really. I’m still trying to find our floors after the combination of party-blizzard-snow day, because the kids seriously just destroyed EVERYTHING. It’s hard to find motivation when they’re just going to destroy stuff again.

I’ve already reached DESPONDENCE and it’s not even February. Send all the sunshine and salted caramel ice cream immediately.

January is just crawling by. It’s dark. It’s cold. The kids are making me INSANE every second they are home and not involved in a structured activity. They won’t stop torturing each other but they refuse to be separated. I feel so much sympathy for my own mother, since I’m pretty sure I was EXACTLY the same way with my sister as a child.

Sunday:

There was a thunderstorm, so Caroline tried to help Brutus be less scared

Frozen Monopoly

Linc cheering for the Golden Globes

Monday:

SURE FINE GO PLAY IPAD JUST STOP WHINING

Literally hiding from the whining

Judo time

Tuesday:

Babies who are awake at 7 have to come to the cold bus stop

Dentist sunglasses

Thank blankie is the most disgusting thing I have EVER seen.

Wednesday:

Loves swim

Love hoodies

I ordered this dress-up from China and it came in less than 2 weeks

Thursday:

Tiny sailor boy in his bunk

So cold, but so snuggly in his fox suit

By Grabthar’s Hammer, you will be missed

Friday:

Friends let friends eat their extra waffles

Piano lessons

Bored at the very busy grocery store

Saturday:

2 am. Baby screaming in my face while I try to watch Friends. #blessed

Super happy about her baby oranges

OK, I guess comforting his crying sister means he isn’t THAT much of a jerk

I have my first photoshoot of the year tomorrow and there is SNOW on the ground. I don’t know if my clients are super thrilled but I sure am. It’s going to be gorgeous. But cold. Super cold. So I plan to spend the rest of the day (no school!) hiding under a blanket while my husband (no work!) keeps the children from killing each other. Because that is what I do on the days HE has work. I AM REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO IT.

We survived our first busy week back at real life! Almost all my pictures are of people sleeping.

Sunday:

New picture frames!

Building his – I mean EVAN’S – new Legos

Playing with Christmas presents like a big kid

Monday:

Trying to put clips in his hair, always

Naps

FORCED SIBLING LOVE IS THE BEST KIND

Tuesday:

He would have slept with that wrapping paper if I let him

It is slightly less dark when the kids get off the bus

Swinging

Wednesday:

Rainbow carwash

Finding new uses for my newborn posing beanbag

Thought process: Oh look how pretty that beam of light looks. End result: Unremarkable random photo of moldings.

Thursday:

Sleeping baby

Sad baby

Happy baby

Friday:

The cat hates being cold in the winter

Doing important baby work

MORE NAPS – we had friends over but he was so tired he ASKED for naps

Saturday:

I am SO GLAD I am not in charge of the basketball clinic

Showing off their new basketball skills

Caroline can’t hang past 8 pm.

It is now the worst part of the year, where it’s always winter but never Christmas. We haven’t had any remarkable snow yet, which would at least give us an at-home-jammies day and I could take the kids sledding to wear them out. Luckily they CLEARLY seem to be getting enough activity to be tired anyway.

There are a couple of snowflakes on my weather app for next weekend though, so I’m hopeful.